Tuesday, December 31, 2013

“An
eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”Mahatma Gandhi

At the outset I want to be very clear that I
hold no love for the Congress Party. Under Sonia Gandhi, it has raped and
looted India like no other party or single-entity since our Independence; of
that there is no question. I for one cannot wait to see the back of the UPA and
am also desperately looking for an alternative to lead India. Today, the
Congress party comes across as apathetic, complacent, autocratic and completely
blind to the day-to-day hardships and realities of the majority of our country.
I will give the Congress credit for liberalising the Indian economy and
ushering in a hitherto unseen era of wealth and prosperity. But it now feels
like the only beneficiaries of this economic largesse have been the politicians
themselves and the politically connected classes. The majority of Indians have
not seen any returns from the economic boom other than vote buying sop’s and
poorly distributed government handouts that appear around election time.

Meanwhile, all the ruling politicians have
become completely shameless in their own pursuit of ill-gotten gains, behave
like they are all above the law and have also deluded themselves into believing
that we are deaf, dumb and blind to their looting and selling of our country.
Furthermore, they seem to believe that passing more toothless ordinances and
feckless laws are the best way to obfuscate and placate the growing cacophony
of voices that are sick and tired of their never ending scams, blasé corruption
and endless indecision - that are now also destroying our economic growth rate
and global reputation.

This government has also routinely used their
reach and powers to protect their own while persecuting anyone who disagrees
with them. Manmohan Singh, our Prime Minister and father of the original
economic reforms, has been totally ineffective and, frankly, more compliant
than a well-trained lapdog. Now Sonia Gandhi and her Congress cronies are
threatening to replace Dr. Singh with a man who not only makes wallpaper look
sexy, but also has the ability to make watching paint dry feel like an
invigorating experience. Rahul Gandhi may be many things but he is no leader.
He lacks charisma, vision, gumption, drive, a point of view, a grip on complex
issues and ability for original thinking. What India needs is a leader who has
balls, one who offers a vision for India’s future and is not deaf to the needs
of the majority. So far the Congress party has failed to put forward such a candidate.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party, offers the
only other alternative at this time. They are the political arm of the
Rashtriya Sang Samaj (RSS) which was started in 1925 as a Hindu Nationalist
movement that gained fame when one of its members, Nathuram Godse, assassinated
Mahatma Gandhi in 1948; after which it was declared a terrorist group by the
Indian government and banned for two years. However, this did not
diminish the RSS; it has expanded vastly and grown stronger and more powerful
over the last fifty years.

The BJP has only been in power at the center for eight of India’s
sixty-six years since independence. A large reason for the BJP’s lack of
national following and political clout has been their ties to the RSS and their
extreme right-wing philosophies and fundamentalist views, that includes combat
training camps across the country for Hindu youth (Source: “RSS combat
training camps to woo youth” – Indian Express article). In the last
two dozen years the BJP worked hard to soften their image and champion leaders
within the party with moderate views. However, now they sense a real
opportunity based on the Congress’s inability to govern and rampant corruption.
They see that the vast majority of the country is beyond sick and tired of the
never ending scams, the endless vote buying handouts and institutional bullying
tactics.

So confident is a resurgent BJP (and RSS) that they were willing to put
forth an extremely polarizing figure for their Prime Ministerial candidate.
Narendra Modi is a man with a chequered past including his ties to the RSS and
the 2002 communal riots that happened under his watch in Gujarat, where many
Muslims were massacred by retaliating Hindus as the police and state apparatus
turned a blind eye.

So polarizing is Modi that even within his own party, there was a lack
of consensus on his elevation. The announcement caused much consternation within
the leadership and rank and file. The BJP also lost some close political allies
in the process of elevating Mr. Modi, but given the sheer hatred for the
Congress that prevails, they believed it worth the gamble. So far they seem to
be right, judging by the recent walloping the Congress took in mid-terms Polls
in four different states.

Unlike Rahul Gandhi, Mr. Modi comes from humble beginnings. He was the
son of a tea seller who grew up poor and had a very hard life by his own
admission: “I had a lot of pain because I grew up in a village where there
was no electricity and in my childhood we used to face a lot of hardships
because of this.”(*). Mr. Modi was drawn to the RSS at an early age and it
was at their camps that his ideas about the world were formed (*).

His brother says, “[Modi] was always greatly impressed by the fact
that only one person gave all the orders in the [RSS camp] and everyone
followed the command.” (*Source: “The Man Who Doesn't Wear Dark
Green” – Boston Review article). Today, he has
grown to have a cult-like status as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. He is known
for his take no prisoners attitude and for being an autocratic head of state.
He is known to trust just a handful of people and insists on making every
decision himself. He shows scant loyalty to his own people and party and a
great savvy for promoting himself, even ahead of his party.

You could not have two more polar opposite choices in party and
candidates. The Congress is old, slow, incompetent, corrupt, turning a deaf ear
to the needs of India’s basic infrastructure development and willing to
sacrifice our pride for their own corrupt means. The BJP is resurgent and
confident; riding on the wings on Mr. Modi’s growing popularity. Even though is
he is known to have an authoritarian style, he is seen as incorruptible, and
has effectively championed the economic development of this state; building
infrastructure, creating tax incentives and favourable business conditions to
successfully woo the biggest and best companies from across India. There is no
doubt he has India Inc.’s vote, all of whom are tired with the Congress
indecision, constant changes in policy and graft without any results.

I can understand why Mr. Modi makes an attractive candidate for many
Indians; especially among the youth and to the corporate sector. The current
frustration and open hatred for the Congress over the past decade have almost
started to make Mr. Modi’s status messianic, because people are so desperate
for change, for some semblance of leadership to see some Indian courage on the
world stage once more. As Indians, we were all sold the story of India shining,
told that it was the dawn of a new age as a world economic powerhouse, but our
current government never delivered on any part of this promise. Indians are
tired of being pushed around and laughed at because our government only cares
about filling their Swiss bank accounts, while our Prime Minister becomes the
laughing stock of the world. Nobody wants another four years of the Congress
led UPA.

Yet, there is something unsettling about Mr. Modi’s brand of
nationalism and his seeming apathy towards the merciless slaughter of Muslims
in his state in 2002. I have no problem with his autocratic style of
leadership. God knows we can use a little decision-making right now. Nor am I
concerned with the fact that the BJP, as a party, is also corrupt (as they have
shown in the past and in states they currently govern). What troubles me
greatly is Mr. Modi’s outright refusal to apologise for the 2002 riots in his
state and under his leadership. In fact, he has been known to refuse to answer
any questions relating to the riots and at times even removed his microphone
and walked off camera when asked about his role. Just this week a local court
upheld an earlier report by a special investigation team, clearing Mr. Modi of
any criminal wrongdoing. Yet, a “number of leaders and senior state
officials have already been convicted and sentenced for inciting mobs and
committing mass murder during the riots.” (Source: “Court Clears
Narendra Modi in Riots Case” – Wall Street Journal article). Nobody
denies that state officials and senior policemen were complicit in inciting
mobs and in some cases even leading them to kill Muslims. A landmark Human
Rights Watch report published in 2002 said that the RSS that was responsible
for passing out lists of Muslim-owned business and homes to mobs at the start
of the violence.” (Source: “We Have No
Orders to Save You” – HumanRights Watch).

Mr. Modi was the leader of the state when the riots occurred. Even if
he did not personally direct officials to incite or seek revenge and there is
no evidence of criminal wrongdoing on his part, it is hard to believe he was
unaware of what his senior state apparatus was doing. Especially for a leader
who takes pride in making every decision and without whose authority we are
told nothing can happen in his state. The issue to me is less about criminal
culpability and more about moral responsibility. As the Chief Minister, if he
can take full responsibility for the growth and economic development of
Gujarat, then he must also do the same for any tragic event that occurs under
his leadership. He did issue a statement on his blog, after the court verdict
was announced this week, which the BJP claims is a personal and heartfelt
apology from Mr. Modi. To me it reads more like a PR release written by a man
hoping to soon hold the highest office in the land, and clear the one great
blemish on his otherwise perfect record. There is also the question of why a
man who felt so much guilt and anguish (as Mr. Modi states he does) would wait
twelve long years to speak from the heart, and apologise to families of the
thousands of innocent victims, most of whom were Muslims. And why does he never
once use the word Muslim in his entire apology?

Believe me when I say I too want to believe in Mr. Modi and his vision
for a corruption-free and super developed India. But his roots are from deep
within the RSS; it was in their Hindu nationalist brainwashing camps that he
formed his world-view at an early age --- in the context of this fact alone,
his seeming lack of remorse, his refusal to wear green and his lack of genuine
outward warmth towards Muslims scare me in a country that is more than
two-thirds Hindu, and looking for someone to blame for their current woes.
Satyameva Jayate!